(second lemon cake) video ✧ locked to seelie

[steeledskin]

Dear fellows and members of the Seelie court -- [ the voice which addresses the locket is composed and clear and perfectly conscientious. but the girl whose image accompanies the voice looks a little less than all those things. her dark-dyed hair is fastened in an uncommonly simple braid...and if one looks very closely, she can be seen to have a haggard look about her. she's somewhere outside and all her caution is bent at hiding a panic she doesn't want to share with strangers. nor with those few genuinely waiting on her return. ]

I don't want to alarm any of you. Indeed, I speak to the very opposite of that effect. It's -- [ her gaze flickers 'off-screen' for a moment ] -- it's Alayne Stone. Those of you who are acquaintances [ not friends ] ought to know that I've found myself...left behind. I'm sorry. It should not have happened. But I suspect I won't make Caer Glaem again for some time. [ the fault of the matter is a little trickier than that, but she knows better than to play with implications. so after a steadying breath, she presses onwards. ] Or we won’t -- because I'm not alone. [ i have nymeria, she thinks but doesn’t dare to say. just like how sansa wants to speak directly to those who know her for who she really is -- but instead: ] I have a knight with me.

Don't I, Ser Gendry? [ and she twists her locket, letting it capture the surly blacksmith who stands a few paces away from her with an irritated expression. his armour is dented and blooded and the man sags with an obvious exhaustion. ser gendry is a man who looks and feels beaten, but it does not stop him from standing tall. he is a talisman of sorts: a warning, to any sansa fears might prey upon what would otherwise be a journey fraught with vulnerability. ser gendry is here; she is protected, albeit not happily so. he at last looks towards her and her locket and grumbles an unhappy agreement to her statement, which is accompanied by a nod. ]

A lady needn’t despair when she’s so well accompanied. Instead, my thoughts are with the returned; I pray the High Queen’s desired prize was taken without steep costs or losses. [ following this, there is no formal farewell. no official sign-off. her attention lingers, perhaps waiting for one or two responses in particular. ]

( ooc; sansa and gendry are now officially stranded and making their long way back to caer glaem -- and it’ll take them at least two months, though they’ll be reachable by locket at their respective ic inboxes. but for now, responses to this post will receive replies from one or the other or both!)

Comments

[steeledskin]

I think...I believe he has survived a lot. And he knows more about any of this than I could hope to know. I'm not much of a warrior. Nor a traveller. Nor much of anything, really.

i apologize in advance for this loser

[oursavinggrace]

[of course this is dropped on him by someone he definitely does not know well enough to know anything properly comforting to say. it's hard to genuinely reassure someone when all you have to go on are a few polite conversations.]

You're pretty.

[jason grace, big lame baby.]

And you're really well-spoken and polite and kind. That's not nothing.

1/2

[steeledskin]

Err -- [ this sort of flattery is not what she expects. not at all. indeed, it crashes through her careful courteous armour for a moment. she looks stunned. ]

2/2

[steeledskin]

[ but eventually she forces a humble smile onto her face. ]

Thank you. But honestly, you're too kind.

[oursavinggrace]

[and he didn't even mean it in a "flattery" sort of way. this boy is something of a miracle.]

Maybe you're just too humble?

[steeledskin]

Humility is a lady's virtue. Or one of them.

[oursavinggrace]

Not where I come from.

[though some of then could certainly use it. clarisse would probably be a bit easier to handle with a bit of humility, and annabeth's whole fatal flaw is sort of based on her having no humility whatsoever.]

[steeledskin]

No? What are their virtues, then?

[oursavinggrace]

Depends, I guess. They all have different...families, I guess, so they all have different values. There's not really any one thing expected of them all, where we come from.

[steeledskin]

How...baffling.

[oursavinggrace]

I don't think so. But, I mean, it's the same for the guys -- what's expected from me is probably different than what's expected from my friends.

[steeledskin]

What is expected of you, Jason?

[oursavinggrace]

[perfection is what he might have said, if he was a snarkier sort of person. instead his jaw just tightens the slightest bit, his tone receding into careful unaffected neutrality.]

Heroism and leadership and success, I'd guess.

[steeledskin]

...Are you a lord?

-- or a knight?

[oursavinggrace]

[his eyebrows raise almost incredulously at the suggestion, and he's quick to wave it off.]

No, no. I'm...

[nothing in particular, not anymore. he'd given up his title as praetor, and he's not sure he even counts as a legionary anymore with camp jupiter now looking to kill him. he's not really one of half-blood's campers either, not greek enough for that.]

...I'm not anything special. It's just because of who my father is -- that's how it works for people like us.

[steeledskin]

[ because of who his father is? oh. she understands it -- or so she imagines. sansa bites her bottom lip and nods. ]

Expectation has fallen upon your shoulders, then. It is an inheritance of sorts.

[oursavinggrace]

That's one way of putting it.

[it doesn't feel right to complain about it, though, as if respect is all that bad a thing to deal with when nico's sometimes treated like a pariah for who his dad is. jason's lucky, in many ways. hell, he should probably be grateful for his dad.

after recently learning certain things his dad's done, however, it's a lot harder to tell himself that.]

[steeledskin]

...Do you have another?

[oursavinggrace]

[for a moment, he looks like he might actually entertain that question. gods know he's got all sorts of frustration on the subject of his father built up from the last, oh, sixteen years.

in the end, however, he just lets out a breath, deflating a bit. it doesn't feel right to complain to his friends, and it certainly doesn't feel right to do it to a near-stranger probably just asking out of politeness. he buries it back down, more agitation for another day, and eventually just shrugs.]

...No, I guess not.

[steeledskin]

In that case, I can only imagine it must be an expectation you're eager to get back to meeting. Am I right?

[ or perhaps he would be happy to run from it. hard to say. ]

[oursavinggrace]

Well, I'd certainly like to get back home. [though with all the time that's passed here already, there might not even be a home to go back to. this is the problem with snatching away the heroes of the world when there's an evil goddess on the rise and a limited timeframe in which to stop her.] Not much we can do about that, though, besides staying alive and exploring more.

[steeledskin]

Once I am returned...someone else may go and do the exploring. It isn't my strength.

[oursavinggrace]

It's alright, I think the rest of us have that covered.

[with a bit of a grin, remembering their last conversation and the way he'd accidentally unsettled her with his joking. whoops.]

[steeledskin]

The rest of you are so brave.

[oursavinggrace]

Not really. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't call any of us cowards, but that's not what bravery is. Being brave is about being afraid and doing what has to be done anyway. We're all used to traveling around like this, it's nothing special. Honestly, I'd say you're being a lot braver than us right now.